Former West Fargo teacher Shannon Moser is sentenced to 10 years in prison and five years probation for six sex–related crimes involving minors.

A married 38-year-old North Dakota middle school teacher openly sobbed in court as she was sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex with a 16-year-old student.
Shannon Moser, of Fargo, was convicted on Monday for six sex-related crimes involving minors. She pleaded guilty to sending hundreds of explicit Snapchat photos to her six victims.
Moser, who has four daughters, will be eligible for parole in five years. Following her prison sentence, she must also serve five years probation for her crimes.
The former Liberty High School science teacher apologized to her pastor husband Brett, who was in court for the sentencing, as well as her daughters and her victims.

‘I am vastly ashamed of my simple choices that have hurt so many people,’ she read in a statement before the sentencing, according to Twin Cities Pioneer Press.
‘The trust that family, friends, and our community had in me is broken. It may never be fully restored again and that’s a painful sentence I’ll have to face for the rest of my life.’

‘I feel like I don’t deserve life or breath for all the harm and hurt that I’ve caused so many people.’
Moser also apologized for violating her students’ ‘trust in me as a teacher and a trusted adult in the community’.
Her husband was in court supporting her.
The former teacher pleaded guilty in August to sharing illicit photos and videos with students and having sexual contact with two students aged 14 and 15 years old.
Moser pleaded guilty to four counts of luring a minor by computer, one count of gross sexual imposition, and one count of sexual assault.
An investigation into Moser began in June, after the West Fargo Police Department received an anonymous tip that she was having sex with a 16-year-old student.
The teen told police that Moser had shared nude Snapchat images with him and asked him to meet at Rendezvous Park.

After meeting up, they drove out of the town and had sex along a gravel road.
A 15-year-old student then told investigators in July that he had been receiving illicit photos and videos from Moser over Snapchat for a year.
Some of the videos she sent showed her having sex with her husband.
The second boy never had any physical contact with the teacher, but said Moser had asked him if they could meet in person.
Four more victims were then discovered and the charges against Moser were amended.
It was also revealed that multiple complaints had been filed against Moser at Liberty High School, where she allowed students to call her ‘Kim Kardashian’.

It was also revealed that staffers had noticed Moser’s interactions with male students and questioned whether she was crossing student-teacher relationship boundaries.
One of her co-workers cited an incident that occurred while Moser was playing basketball with an eighth grade boy.
The co-worker said in the complaint that ‘the interactions appeared to be uncomfortable because of the physical nature of the basketball game and their interactions appeared to cross student/teacher boundaries’.
A classroom conduct improvement plan had been placed in Moser’s teaching file for the 2017-18 school year after she was reported by staff and students.
Police also found URLs for porn sites that included younger boys engaging in sex with older women on Moser’s cellphone’s browsing history.

Moser started teaching at Liberty Middle School in June 2016 but resigned in July when she was arrested. She turned herself into Cass County Jail and decided to never post bail.
Scott Brand, Moser’s attorney, said she decided to stay in jail because ‘she knows there’s a debt she has to pay to society’.

‘She’s most certainly sorry for her actions, and the reason she did not post bail is because she knew what she did was wrong,’ he told the court in August.
‘So she voluntarily chose to stay on her own will.’
The prosecution had asked that Moser receive a 20-year sentence, serving 15 years in prison and five on sex offender parole, according to KVRR.
Moser’s defense asked that she receive five years in prison – the minimum for her charges – along with five years of probation and registration as a sex offender.
Nine of Moser’s friends wrote letters to the judge asking for a lighter sentence.
Her husband also told the court that the former teacher is now mentoring and tutoring women in jail who are trying to get their GED.
As part of her sentence, Moser cannot contact or work with any minor, be on any school grounds, or access certain websites.
She will also have to report any romantic interests once she goes on probation.